PRINTRain Barrel Art Review
Making ecology artsy
William Lounsbury
Local artist Carol Brown painted this rain barrel on display at Mustard Seed. Others can be seen at 14 places around downtown including the Tiger Hotel and Ninth Street Video.
March 18, 2010 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Rubber ducks floating on a blue background, Missouri wildlife peeking from behind trees and spring flowers under a rain shower are just some of the images adorning functional rain barrels placed around Columbia for the second annual Rain Barrel Art Review.
To raise awareness about the Missouri River Communities Network and the issues caused by storm water runoff, local artists painted 14 plastic drums. The containers work by collecting water from your gutters and holding on to it until you need to water the lawn, wash the dog or use the non-potable H2O in some other way, according to Rain Barrel Art Review organizer Julia Karll.
Beginning at a reception at Orr Street Studios on Friday, the barrels will be auctioned off on eBay with the proceeds going back to the network’s programs.
“The minimum bid will be $75 per barrel,” Karll says. “We sell them for $60 normally, so for $15 extra, you can have an art barrel, something that was made to look beautiful by a local artist.”
The artists who volunteered used acrylic paints and the theme of water conservation.
Local artist Carol Brown participated in the event for the second year. Her design features bare winter trees and a forested landscape filled with Missouri animals such as squirrels, deer and birds.
“Then I wrote around the top, ‘Every body needs water,’” she says. “It sat in the middle of the dining room table for about a month. The kids and I would eat dinner around it.”
Brown says over the course of painting the barrel, she educated friends about the blue plastic cylinders and the water’s many uses, such as washing a car or cleaning garden tools.
Participating artist Josie Cozean, a junior psychology major at MU, says she hopes people will see the decorative rain barrels and think about using one. She painted a pair of cupped hands on hers to remind people that they should conserve as much as they can. “I thought it was a pretty cool idea to be able to do something that would help out in some way,” Cozean says.
A 2007 Memphis College of Art graduate, Matt Pierson, who lives and works in St. Louis, decked out his cylindrical surface using layers of epoxy resin and rubber ducks, a concept that evolved as he worked.
“I didn’t really factor in nature and the beauty of nature because mine is more of a contemporary piece,” he says. “I was thinking more of it being juxtaposed in the different space.”
Whether the cisterns are contemporary or not, Karll says she hopes the artsy barrels will make more people interested in using them outside their home.
“Even if they can’t spend the money since it’s more than just a regular barrel, they will at least learn about where they can get rain barrels and start to use them,” Karll says.
WHERE: Orr Street Studios
WHEN: Friday, March 19, 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
CALL: Missouri River Communities Network: 256-2602
Twitter
Facebook
